Rebranding Islam

Piety, Prosperity, and a Self-Help Guru

James Bourk Hoesterey

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780804796378, 9780804795111
• eBook ISBN: 9780804796385
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Kyai Haji Abdullah Gymnastiar, known affectionately by Indonesians as "Aa Gym" (elder brother Gym), rose to fame via nationally televised sermons, best-selling books, and corporate training seminars. In Rebranding Islam James B. Hoesterey draws on two years' study of this charismatic leader and his message of Sufi ideas blended with Western pop psychology and management theory to examine new trends in the religious and economic desires of an aspiring middle class, the political predicaments bridging self and state, and the broader themes of religious authority, economic globalization, and the end(s) of political Islam.

At Gymnastiar's Islamic school, television studios, and MQ Training complex, Hoesterey observed this charismatic preacher developing a training regimen called Manajemen Qolbu into Indonesia's leading self-help program via nationally televised sermons, best-selling books, and corporate training seminars. Hoesterey's analysis explains how Gymnastiar articulated and mobilized Islamic idioms of ethics and affect as a way to offer self-help solutions for Indonesia's moral, economic, and political problems. Hoesterey then shows how, after Aa Gym's fall, the former celebrity guru was eclipsed by other television preachers in what is the ever-changing mosaic of Islam in Indonesia. Although Rebranding Islam tells the story of one man, it is also an anthropology of Islamic psychology.

Index

Page references followed by “f” refer to figures and photographs.

Aa Deda (Abdurrahman Yuri), 93, 95, 113, 116, 201

Aa Gym (Kyai Haji Abdullah Gymnastiar); as adventurer, 13f, 44, 66; anti-pornography legislation support, 149–151, 154–155, 158–165, 229nn13–15; in anti-pornography rally, 165–173, 170f, 172f; autobiography of, 15, 38, 42–53, 63–65, 200, 222n9; children of, 15f, 64 f, 66, 67f, 187, 191, 204, 223n14; on civic voluntarism, 124, 141–143, 145; on Danish cartoons, 155, 158–159, 163; detractors of, 42–43, 50–51; early life of, 45–49; on ethics of vision, 24, 152–153, 228nn3–4; as family therapist, 41, 56f, 56–60, 63–65, 222n9; as figure of modernity, 30, 44, 71, 194, 215–218; on Hexagonal water, 74–86, 79f; humor of, 39, 46, 53, 55, 66, 68; on Islamic entrepreneurship, 43–44, 52–54, 109–111, 116–117, 222n7; Islamists and, 27, 45–46, 198–199; as loving father and husband, 62–70, 64 f, 67f, 177, 193; as model of Muslim masculinity, 14, 57–58, 61–63, 68, 192–193, 215; on national morality, 27, 121–123, 128–129, 131–132 (see also Gema Nusa); on obedience and submission, 181, 186–187, 191–192, 204; origin of honorific “Aa,” 45; photos of, xxx, 13f, 15f, 16f, 48f, 56f, 64 f, 67f, 122f, 172f, 190f, 197f; pilgrimages of, 51, 73–74, 129, 142, 178, 185–186, 196; political strategies of, 26–27, 39–42, 53, 217; polygamy scandal, 175–209 (see also polygamy scandal); rebranding of, 192–200, 197f, 201–208; religious awakening of, 48–52, 222n6; rise to celebrity, 39–42; SEFT and, 76, 86, 90, 191–192; shaming the state, 27–30, 149–164, 173; with spiritual tourists, 64 f, 64–70; Yamaha motorcycle marketing by, 37, 37f; see also branding of Aa Gym; Daarut Tauhiid; polygamy scandal; religious authority of Aa Gym; sermons of Aa Gym

Aa Gym: Just as He Is, 42, 199–200. See also autobiography of Aa Gym

“Aa Jimmy,” 193

Abdullah, Ali, 51

Abdullah, Ulil Abshar, 42

Ab...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Series Page
• Also Published in the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center Series
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Authority, Subjectivity, and the Cultural Politics of Public Piety
• Section One: Religious Authority
• Section Two: Muslim Subjectivity
• Section Three: Politics of Public Piety
• Conclusion: Figuring Islam: Popular Culture and the Cutting Edge of Public Piety
• Notes
• References
• Index